A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

The Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), the body responsible for setting, reviewing and revising the rules for broadcast advertising, has proposed revisions to its old advertising codes. In 2009, according to their website: "BCAP received more than 29,000 responses to its consultation many of which focused on the fact that BCAP has proposed to change the regulatory position on advertisements for post-conception advice services (PCAS) "

BCAP is now returning to the subject of PCAS. All pro-lifers need to be aware of this dangerous development. The new proposals include allowing commercial PCAS to advertise on television, allowing advertising by all those seen as providing suitable credentials, and requiring services to state if they do not refer for abortion.

The proposals would, in practice, ensure that large commercial 'providers' of abortion would be able to advertise freely; while small pro-life organisations wouldn't, either because they couldn't afford it or because they would be excluded as not able to provide 'suitable credentials'. Credentials in all likelihood will include a willingness to refer for abortions. It is telling that abortion is seen, by BCAP, as something so ordinary and mainstream that pregnancy services not offering it are to be highlighted and subject to possible exclusion. I urge SPUC members to get involved and make their concerns known with regard to this pernicious move. Please read and use SPUC's briefing paper on the subjecthttp://bit.ly/peGRZ5 Time is, regrettably, short, but if you want to keep the abortion peddlers off the screen and less capable of poisoning our culture yet further, then please make time to write. Consultation closes Monday 8 August.

2. Book now for SPUC’s annual conference

Please consider booking into SPUC’s 2011 annual conference which takes place from Friday evening, 16 September until Sunday lunchtime, 18 September. The conference venue is the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire. Keynote talks include "The graphic reality of what young children are shown in the classroom" from Antonia Tully, national co-ordinator for the SPUC Safe at School campaign; and "How the pro-euthanasia lobby works" with guest speaker Dr Peter Saunders, chief executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship. Also speaking is the powerful pro-life advocate, Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo. Terri was a physically-healthy woman with a profound brain injury; she was starved and dehydrated by order of a US court and died from severe dehydration on 31 March 2005. The cost per person for a full weekend, including accommodation and meals, is £160 – or £145 if you book before 19 August; for students in full-time education, the cost is £100 and for children aged 8 to 12, it’s £75. For full information contact Katherine Hampton, conference organiser, at SPUC, 3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB, or email conference@spuc.org.uk or phone (020) 7091 7091.

SPUC’s nationwide campaign to ban sexually-explicit videos from primary school is having such a big impact we have decided to extend the closing date of our petition till 15 October 2011 when all petitions will be returned to HQ.

Antonia Tully, who’s leading SPUC’s Safe at School campaign, already has five public meetings between September and early October organized by concerned parents. In November, a group of the parents organizing Antonia’s public meetings will present the petition to Michael Gove MP, the Secretary of State for Education.

The petition cites content from the sexually-explicit DVDs which are part of Channel 4's “Living and Growing” programme for primary schools. Children between seven and nine years of age are shown animations of sexual intercourse in different positions and are told that touching their sexual organs is pleasurable. “Living and Growing”, heavily promoted by local authorities, is the most-widely used sex education teaching resource.

If you are not a SPUC branch officer, and you wish to organize the petition in your area or at your local church, please contact us so that we can help you to do so, either by putting you in touch with your local SPUC branch or advising you how to organize the petition locally and sending you all the necessary materials – petitions, explanatory leaflets, petition guidelines etc. Local branches and others might consider extending the petition in your local area – on the high street, outside a local railway station, or at local churches (with the clergy’s permission of course). Contact tonymullett@spuc.org.uk or phone him on (01772) 258580; or contact SPUC HQ.

Childine's website describes abortion as a legitimate choice. The website also recommends the pro-abortion organisations Brook and the Family Planning Association (FPA) as "sources of help"; and says
that teenagers "should always use contraception". SPUC comment:
According to the manufacturers, many forms of contraception can cause
early abortions through making the lining of the womb hostile to
newly-conceived human embryos.

New euthanasia ruling worrying as M case continues
A new ruling by a English high court judge allowing euthanasia by omission is worrying, coming at the same time as another high court judge considers the M case, says SPUC's Patients First Network. Mr Justice Charles ruled that food, fluids and heart medication can be withdrawn from a 54-year-old mother-of-four deemed to be in a so-called "permanent vegetative state". This court-case is a separate court-case from the M case, currently before Mr Justice Baker, in which a 51-year-old woman, deemed to be in a so-called "minimally-conscious state", is threatened with the same denial of care. Anthony Ozimic, speaking on behalf of Patients First Network, commented: "The provision of water, food and reasonable medical treatment to patients who are not dying is a human right underpinning the fundamental right to life, yet the English high court has discriminated against disabled people by denying them that right." [SPUC, 28 July] http://bit.ly/oi4gPI

89 infants and young children rescued from Chinese people traffickers
Police have broken-up two large child-trafficking rings in China. 89 infants and young children, some as young as 10 days' old, were rescued. Such child-trafficking is partly the result of China's one-child policy. [Daily Mail, 27 July] http://bit.ly/oy0Buh

A new ruling by a English high court judge allowing euthanasia by omission is worrying, coming at the same time as another high court judge considers the M case.

SPUC's Patients First Network has commented on Mr Justice Charles' ruling, reported this morning, that food, fluids and heart medication can be withdrawn from a 54-year-old mother-of-four deemed to be in a so-called "permanent vegetative state". This court-case is a separate court-case from the M case, currently before Mr Justice Baker, in which a 51-year-old woman, deemed to be in a so-called "minimally-conscious state", is threatened with the same denial of care. (Read the interview with Nikki Kenward of Distant Voices about the M case.)

Anthony Ozimic, speaking on behalf of Patients First Network, told the media this morning:

"Although the court-cases are separate, the M case is being heard against the backdrop of such recent high court rulings which effectively sentenced disabled people to death. The provision of water, food and reasonable medical treatment to patients who are not dying is a human right underpinning the fundamental right to life, yet the English high court has discriminated against disabled people by denying them that right. Whether and to what extent a person has brain-damage is irrelevant to their membership of the human family."

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

SPUC is re-launching its information on charities as an online index, with new entries and updated information added as and when new information is received. Today's entry is on Barnardo's:

Barnardo's is a UK charity established to care for vulnerable children and young people.

Barnardo's runs the Young Womens London Project which offers a "sexual health service". Through the service "[y]oung women can access [a] nurse for free condoms, contraception (including emergency contraception) pregnancy testing and advice about abortion/termination." SPUC comment: According to the manufacturers, many forms of contraception can cause early abortions through making the lining of the womb hostile to newly-conceived human embryos.

The Barnardo's website recommends the websites of Marie Stopes International and the Family Planning Association, two of the UK's leading abortion agencies.

UK woman acted as surrogate mother to sister's child
A British woman has acted as a surrogate mother to her sister's child. Samantha Lewin gave birth to a girl conceived using her sister Amanda Gudz's egg and Mrs Gudz's husband's sperm. Another sister later paid for a second pregnancy for Mrs Gudz using frozen embryos. [Mirror, 27 July] http://bit.ly/pf5suq Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "The full details of this case are worth reading. It shows how IVF kills embryonic children and debases procreation into mere reproduction."

Former locked-in patient now campaigns against euthanasia
A woman who recovered from locked-in syndrome is now campaigning against euthanasia. Nikki Kenward, of the group Distant Voices, is campaigning to save a woman threatened with court-approved denial of assisted food and fluids. Mrs Kenward argues that the life of every disabled person is worth living. [Daily Mail, 27 July] http://bit.ly/nnCXZh

Generation of young UK women putting off motherhood due to money worries
A new survey suggests that 42% of British women under 30 are delaying motherhood due to concerns about personal finances. The survey, backed by an insurance company, also found that 29% of British women over 30 were also delaying motherhood for the same reason. Julian Brazier MP said that high property prices was a factor. [Daily Mail, 27 July] http://bit.ly/r32Ynu

"Suicide is a hallmark of rebellion against the divine order" by Anthony Ozimic

May 2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the suicide of Ulrike Meinhof, one of the leaders of German communist group the Baader-Meinhof gang. Meinhof, along with the group’s other leaders, had been convicted and jailed for a series of terrorist acts which had outraged West Germany. Increasingly isolated by her fellow leaders, Meinhof descended into self-neglect, culminating in her hanging from a bedsheet. The other three revolutionaries killed themselves two years later following a failed attempt by terrorists to free them.

That anniversary highlights the close association between the acceptance of suicide and a failure of resignation to life’s visissitudes. In some pagan societies, such as ancient Rome or medieval Japan, suicide was seen as a way of avoiding a perceived indignity, such as defeat in battle. St Augustine, in "The City of God", gives an unfavourable verdict on such suicides when compared with the patient suffering of the early Christians. For St Augustine, suicide is a cowardly flight from life’s misfortunes. And for St Thomas Aquinas, suicide is a rebellion against the providence of the benevolent God.

In the context of modern terrorism, suicide appears to be being justified, by at least some Islamist groups, with reference to 'martyrdom operations'. Cherie Blair famously tried to explain the self-destructive bombings of Palestinians in the context of despair among the youth of the Occupied Territories. The organisers of 9/11 bolstered the terrorists’ resolve by assuring them that their self-wrought deaths would deliver them from this life into a paradise of bodily comforts. Here again we see an association between the rebellion of revolution and a rebellion against life’s realities. Self-destructive terrorists have refused to accept that less violent yet more difficult means are the nobler ways to achieve their political goals.

How are the suicides of Stoics, the samurai and some modern terrorists relevant to the current debate about assisted suicides for terminally-ill modern Westerners? Are not the proposals of Lords Joffe and Falconer, of Margo MacDonald and Debbie Purdy framed in terms of respect for law, order and civilised standards? Yet it is this very respectability which hides the objective reality of suicide. Suicide in Nazi Germany (whether for the ill or of Nazi officers) was commonly practised within a State which was anxious to give (at least outside) respect to legal forms and administrative efficiency. Yet Nazism was at its heart a revolutionary movement which totally rejected the sanctity of human life. There is a greater Judge, Who forbids His creatures to disobey His higher law protecting life from the insurrection of suicide.

It has been quite fashionable for modern commentators to describe our Lord as one of the first revolutionaries. One peer even claimed in a parliamentary debate that the Crucifixion was an assisted suicide. Yet, as St Paul tells us, “Christ was made obedient for us unto death, even death upon a cross.” His submission was the very antithesis of the despair and rebellion in the face of failure and suffering which marks so many suicides throughout history. It was not for nothing that on the Cross He said: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”; for the psalm He was reciting (Ps. 22) continues: “He hath not slighted nor despised the supplication of the poor man”, and ends: “My soul shall live.”

To recognise that suicide is a hallmark of rebellion against the divine order is not, however, to refuse compassion to those tempted to commit suicide for whatever reason. Rather, that recognition serves as a basis upon which we can explain that suicide is not part of God’s loving plan for His children in this vale of tears. Our lives are always worth living, not least because the Author of life “hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Is.53.4) By His example on the Cross, Jesus the suffering servant proved Himself to be the King of love. We must pray that all those who feel indignity, resentment, suffering or misplaced revolutionary zeal will exchange the rebellion of suicide for a hope-filled, life-affirming humility.

Norway shooter supports abortion for disabled babies
Anders Behring Breivik, who killed scores of people in Norway on Friday, supports abortion in cases of rape and disability. The mainstream media have been reporting that Mr Breivik is a "Christian fundamentalist", whereas in his own writings he made clear that he is not a religious believer. A number of his ideas are at variance with pro-life and pro-family principles. [LifeSiteNews.com, 25 July] http://bit.ly/pxMRKW

UK premature baby survives after doctors advised abortion
A British baby born at 23 weeks into pregnancy has survived, after his parents rejected doctors' advice to abort him. Jacob McMahon was born weighing 1lb 4oz (0.57kg). [Telegraph, 25 July] http://tgr.ph/pwld7R The Telegraph's reporter states incorrectly that the upper time-limit for abortion in Britain is 24 weeks. In fact, abortion is allowed up to birth on the ground of disability and on some other grounds.

UK sperm bank to offer new online catalogue offering 'well-dressed' donors
A London sperm bank is offering women an online catalogue of sperm donors classified by personal attributes. The catalogue includes details of the donor's personality, lifestyle and appearance. [Marie Claire, 25 July] http://bit.ly/oS1pmN Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "Such catalogues have been available in the United States for many years. It is disturbing that such objectification and commodification of the gift of reproduction is now appearing in the United Kingdom."

Amnesty International claims that it is not pro-abortion, but it now campaigns for the decriminalisation of abortion. In an October 2010 reply to a SPUC supporter, Amnesty International said that the organisation had in 2006 defined their policy to "Provide women and men with full information on sexual and reproductive health; Repeal laws criminalizing abortion...Ensure access to abortion services to any woman who becomes preganant as the result of rape, sexual assault or incest, or where a pregnancy poses a risk to a woman's life or a grave risk to her health."

The late Michael Evans, Catholic bishop of East Anglia, England, and a prominent member of Amnesty International, left the organisation in protest at its change of policy to support legal abortion.

Amnesty International has criticised Latin American countries for banning or restricting abortion.

Amnesty International's "Integrated Strategic Plan 2010 to 2016" states that it will work for the "...protection of sexual and reproductive rights and health" (p. 8). SPUC comment: "sexual and reproductive rights and health" is used commonly as either a technical term or a euphemism for abortion on demand.

I am delighted to hear that Michael Voris will be speaking in London on Wednesday 24 August. The talk has in fact been organised by my son Paul and you can purchase tickets for the talk on Paul's blog.

Michael Voris S.T.B. is the president and founder of St Michael’s Media and the senior executive producer of RealCatholicTV.com, the world's first online Catholic television station. Michael gave up a successful media career as an anchor, reporter and producer for CBS to dedicate his energies to the promotion of the Gospel through the media.

" ... The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union. The so-called "contraceptive mentality" is essentially antilife.Many forms of so-called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy, at its beginning, a life which has already been conceived ..."

Michael Voris addressed this very issue in a recent episode of his show 'The Vortex'.

RealCatholicTV.com have also produced an hour-long documentary called The Cost of Abortion. This documentary focuses on the disastrous social and economic impact of abortion in the United States. Particularly interesting is Michael's reflections on the role of the media in promoting abortion and deliberately denigrating the work of pro-life organisations. I warn readers, as the website does itself, that the documentary contains disturbing images of actual abortions. This video was sent to every member of the US senate.

I have no doubt that Michael's talk will inspire people young and old either to embrace or renew their commitment to building-up of the culture of life. I would urge readers both to come to this event and to tell their friends about it.

Pro-life ethicists sceptical of scientists' call about hybrids
Pro-life ethicists have expressed scepticism about a call by UK scientists for the creation of new expert body to advise on human-animal hybrids. A report by the Academy of Medical Scientists raises the possibility of breeding great apes with human intelligence. Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship warned that Professor John Harris (pictured), the academy's advisory ethicist, is an anti-life extremist. [Peter Saunders, 22 July] http://bit.ly/oPRgVa

Korean Catholic bishops condemn sale of abortifacient pill
The Catholic bishops of Korea have condemned the South Korean government's approval of Ella (Ulipristal), the latest version of the morning-after pill. The bishop's pro-life committee said that the approval "is very regrettable, and the government is extremely irresponsible”. [Catholic Culture, 21 July] http://bit.ly/nFxqEz According to their manufacturers, morning-after pills can cause early abortions by preventing newly-conceived human embryos from implanting in the lining of the womb.

Prominent US psychiatrist says men are traumatized by abortion
Dr Keith Ablow, a prominent American psychiatrist has said that men are traumatized by abortion. In an opinion column, Dr Ablow said that in his own practice of psychiatry he has heard many men express intense pain about the abortions of their children. [Fox News, 22 July] http://fxn.ws/oxkWkU Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH), SPUC's sister organization, provides counselling for men and women hurt by abortion. www.archtrust.org.uk

Friday, 22 July 2011

SPUC is re-launching its information on charities as an online index, with new entries and updated information added as and when new information is received. Today's new entry is on Christian Aid:

Christian Aid is a UK-based charity which provides aid to developing countries. It is sponsored by the main Christian denominations in the UK with the exception of the Catholic Church.

In a letter (8 March 2011) to SPUC, Loretta Minghella, Christian Aid's director said that:

While not supporting abortion clinics, Christian Aid follows the laws of each country it works within, i.e., places where abortion is legal.

"Christian Aid does not fund abortions." But Christian Aid does fund organisations that "...provide support to poor women in crisis, including the provision of counselling services to inform victims of their legal rights, both in terms of advice on legal abortions as well as the risks of illegal abortions."

"Christian Aid does fund partners that work with young people to ensure they have increased access to accurate, evidence-based and appropriate education around the issues of sexual and reproductive health rights..." SPUC comment: It should be noted that "sexual and reproductive health rights" is used commonly as either a technical term or a euphemism for abortion on demand. Also, terms such as "increased access" and "accurate, evidence-based" are used commonly as euphemisms for abortion services and pro-abortion propaganda.

"....[Christian Aid's] partners also work to strengthen young girls' capabilities for informed and autonomous decision-making, in particular to help reduce sexual violence, unintended pregnancies and associated risks." SPUC comment: "informed and autonomous decision-making" is a phrase used commonly as a euphemism for abortion on demand.

"Christian Aid does work with partners that promote use of and access to contraception and we see this as part of our critical strategy around training healthcare staff." SPUC comment: many forms of contraception also act to cause early abortions. Also, greater provision of contraception has been shown to lead to higher rates of abortion.

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Simon Ross of Population Matters (formerly the Optimum Population Trust) was quoted thus in last Sunday's Observer:

"[F]amily planning is cheap, yet many people don't use it properly and accidental pregnancy rates are very high. We need to change the incentives to make the environmental case that one or two children are fine but three or four are just being selfish.The Beckhams, and others like London mayor Boris Johnson, are very bad role models with their large families." [my emphases]

Excuse me? For all my adult life, supporters of "family planning" have claimed - repeatedly and in no uncertain terms - that "family planning" is all about choice, that no one (especially not men) have a right to tell women what to do with their bodies and that one should never, ever be judgmental about another person's private reproductive decisions.

Mr Ross' chutzpah shows that population control extremists are as bendy as a Beckham free-kick.

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

A new study, from the University of Montreal, has found that for most teenagers, parents are their sexual role models. The International Business Timesreports:

"Research from the University of Montreal shows that 45 percent of teens do consider their parents their sexuality role models ... The survey participants included 1,139 mothers of teenagers and 1,171 youths between ages 14 and 17 years...

'Good communication within families and especially around sexual health issues is associated with more responsible behaviors," said Dr. Jean-Yves Frappier, a researcher at the University of Montreal's affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center. ... 'Parents seem to underestimate their role and the impact that they have', Frappier said in a statement. 'Health professionals and the media have an important role to play in empowering parents and enabling them to increase their communications with their children with regards to sexual health issues.'"

To my mind this provides further evidence for both the truth and the principle that parents are the first and foremost educators of their children. It shows just how important it is that schools, governments and religious bodies should emphasise the importance of supporting parents, ensuring that parents have the confidence to talk about sexual matters with their children.

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Anthony McCarthy, SPUC's new Education and Publications manager, has responded to a survey* published today in the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME). An abridged version of Anthony's comment has been adapted for the SPUC website but do read his unabridged version below:

"The new survey found that nearly half of medical students believe in the right of doctors to conscientiously object to any procedure – with demand for a right not to perform a given procedure particularly high among Muslim students. Of 733 medical students surveyed,

“almost a third of students would not perform an abortion for a congenitally malformed foetus up to 24 weeks, a quarter would not perform an abortion for failed contraception before 24 weeks and a fifth would not perform an abortion on a minor who was the victim of rape.”

The current GMC guidelines hold that where medical practice conflicts with a doctor’s religious or moral beliefs, the doctor is expected at least to explore with the patient their ability to find another doctor - the implication being that this doctor will comply. In light of this, it’s worth highlighting that the survey found that

“not all students in the survey who objected to the idea of performing an abortion would necessarily conscientiously object to performing it in practice”.

What is happening, and how, that strong ethical objections are somehow overridden?

If doctors are trained to act as mere facilitators of the desires of their patients and of the DoH’s aims then they have ceased to be members of a noble profession with a clear internal ethic. Indeed, any doctor not heeding his/her conscience, in line with the natural moral law, cannot be said to be operating within the Hippocratic tradition. While it is encouraging that many medical students, especially Muslims, are standing up for their autonomy in relation to fundamental moral truths concerning life and fertility, it is troubling that Dr Sophie Strickland, the survey's author, prominent ethicists and professional bodies view such autonomy as a problem. Conscientious objection - unlike abortion - is a fundamental human right protected by international law. The problem is not medical students asserting their rights to conscientious objection, in line with Hippocratic respect for human life, but the distortion of medicine by unethical practices such as abortion.""

Thursday, 14 July 2011

Next week Quest, "a group of lesbian and gay Catholics", will be holding its annual conference. The conference venue is the All Saints' Pastoral Centre at London Colney. The centre is both owned by, and part of, the Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, headed currently by Archbishop Vincent Nichols. Quest's website gives a clear indication of how Quest and those commentators who support it dissent defiantly from Catholic teaching on sexual ethics*:

"[H]omosexual sex is not an incomplete or less perfect expression of human sexuality ... I also want to affirm that I regard heterosexual and homosexual sex as having the same potential and value ... I disagree fundamentally with Church teaching on this issue." [link]

"[T]he teaching of the Vatican Congregations....is incompatible with the Gospel" [link]

"Quest, an association for lesbian and gay Catholics, welcomes in general the government's proposals to provide for legal recognition of same-sex partnerships." [link]

Archbishop Nichols has a clear duty to cancel the Quest conference. Here are the clear instructions of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a 1986 letter to all the world's bishops regarding homosexuals [my emphasis in bold]:

“All support should be withdrawn from any organizations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely. Such support, or even the semblance of such support, can be gravely misinterpreted. Special attention should be given to the practice of scheduling religious services and to the use of Church buildings by these groups, including the facilities of Catholic schools and colleges. To some, such permission to use Church property may seem only just and charitable; but in reality it is contradictory to the purpose for which these institutions were founded, it is misleading and often scandalous”.

Will Archbishop Nichols once again fail to uphold Catholic pro-life and pro-family teaching, or will he surprise us with a new-found fidelity?

*Why is the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual ethics important specifically for the pro-life movement? The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in no. 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Michael Evans, the Catholic bishop of East Anglia, died earlier this week after a long period with cancer. I wish to put on record my gratitude for Bishop Evans' defence of the unborn when Amnesty International decided to campaign for the decriminalisation of abortion and access to abortion worldwide. Below are some extracts from the statement Bishop Evans issued announcing his decision to leave Amnesty International after 31 years of active membership. May he rest in peace.

"...[O]ur proper indignation regarding pervasive violence against women should not cloud our judgement about our duty to protect the most vulnerable and defenceless form of human life. The International Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, and became a binding treaty for those countries which ratified it. Its Preamble quotes from the 1959 Declaration on the Rights of the Child, that 'the child, by reason of his or her physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth'. This must surely be part of the body of international human rights law to which Amnesty International is committed.

The Catholic Church shares Amnesty's strong commitment to oppose violence against women (for example, rape, sexual assault and incest), but such appalling violence must not be answered by violence against the most vulnerable and defenceless form of human life in a woman's womb. Catholics would want to show practical compassion for such women, and ensure for them all the medical and spiritual care and support they need. But there is no human right to access to abortion, and Amnesty should not involve itself even in such extreme cases...

To support access to abortion even in dire situations compromises Amnesty's mandate to 'Protect the Human'. In time Amnesty may seek to develop this policy further, but even this current limited decision makes it very difficult for Catholics to remain members of Amnesty or to give it any financial support. Very regretfully, I will be ending my 31 year membership of Amnesty International, which included in the 1980s several years on the British Section Council and its Religious Bodies Liaison Panel...

[Amnesty's] regretable decision will almost certainly divide Amnesty's membership and thereby undermine its vital work. Among all human rights, the right to life is fundamental. Commitment to work to 'Protect the Human' can only be deeply compromised by any support for access to abortion..."

John Smeaton

About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 39 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to SPUC's staff, supporters and advisers for their help to me in researching, writing and producing this blog.

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